Religion, personality, or none of them? Exploratory evidence on their correlations with economic preference parameters.

INTRODUCTION

Previous empirical research in the social sciences suggests sizable differences across religious denominations for various outcomes of interest, such as educational attainment, marital stability, wealth, or fertility. A small body of previous experimental literature has investigated possible differences in economic preference parameters (including time preference and risk attitude) between religious denominations that might explain those differences.

METHODS

This research adds to the extant literature on religion and preferences by including information on subjects' Big Five personality traits and analyzing potential correlations with loss aversion. It combines experimental data from incentivized choices with information on religious affiliation during high school and Big Five personality traits to test for possible correlations of religious denomination with risk attitude, time preference, and loss aversion, using Bayesian analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bayesian regression analysis.

RESULTS

Bayesian ANOVA results suggest no preference differences between the religions analyzed in this research. When controlling for Big Five personality traits and a host of other background variables, Bayesian regression results suggest no effects of either religious affiliation or Big Five personality traits measures on the three economic preference parameters analyzed here.

DISCUSSION

These findings highlight the complexity of the relationship between religion, personality traits, and economic preference parameters, suggesting that previously observed differences may be influenced by the preference measures used or other unobserved factors.